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Creighton will be better than last year. Nine of the Bluejays’ top 10 scorers return, including national player of the year candidate Doug McDermott. They won their opening NCAA Tournament game before falling to super-talented North Carolina, and you can bet this team won’t be satisfied with that sort of performance in 2013.

Don’t sleep on Wichita State. Yes, Gregg Marshall lost his top five scorers, and 123 of the team’s 165 starts are gone. But in his five seasons at Wichita State, each of Marshall’s squads has had more success than the previous season. Although improving on 27-6 and an NCAA Tournament appearance will be tough, expect the Shockers to win 20-plus and push Creighton.

Middle heavy. Last season, after Creighton and Wichita State, six MVC teams won between 16 and 21 games, and five of them went to other postseason tournaments. The Jackie Carmichael-led Illinois State Redbirds could emerge as a potential NCAA Tournament-worthy team, but unless Creighton stumbles in the conference tourney, this could be a one-bid league.

In with the new. The league has plenty of impact transfers. Malcolm Armstead (Wichita State from Oregon), Chris Hines (Drake from Utah), Manny Arop (Indiana State from Gonzaga) and Desmar Jackson (SIU from Wyoming) should provide instant scoring. Don’t count out the freshman impact, either. Wichita State’s Fred Van Vleet was the highest-rated recruit to join the MVC, and Creighton will find minutes for sharpshooter Isaiah Zierden.

What happened to SIU? The Salukis reached the NCAA Tournament each year from 2002-2007 but have had just one winning season since and fired coach Chris Lowery after last season’s 8-23 mark, a school record for losses. They turned to Barry Hinson, who averaged nearly 19 wins per season at Missouri State from 1999-2008.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Doug McDermott, Creighton. He was great as a freshman and even greater as a sophomore—so much so that’s it’s difficult to find where the 6-8 forward can get any better. If he does improve on last year’s performance -- averaging 22.9 points and 8.2 rebounds and shooting 48.6 percent from 3-point range and 60.1 percent from the field overall -- he’ll be much more than the conference player of the year.